Repairs

Great Blue Heron Portrait

By Mia McPherson, on August 2nd, 2012%

Great Blue Heron portrait – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1/1000, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, not baited

This Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) got up close and personal with me a few years ago in Florida, it largely ignored my presence altogether as it stalked prey on shore of the Gulf of Mexico. It was a touch unnerving to have such a large wading bird with a spear-like bill towering over me as I sat on the warm sugar sand photographing it. I’m glad it didn’t mistake me for prey.

As usual, I’ve done very little post processing to this image, cropped, removed two little dust bunnies, darkened the mid tones a bit then I masked and sharpened the heron. There are some photographers who would have cleaned up the salt encrusted bill and possibly removed the feather on the bill tip but I prefer to have my images as natural as possible and don’t find the downy feather or the salt on the bill a distraction.

Wow, those occipital plumes are long!

Mia

More Great Blue Heron images

Nothern Harrier repair

By Mia McPherson, on December 25th, 2010%

Clipped wingtip young male Northern Harrier

Clipped wingtip young male Northern Harrier
Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Davis County, Utah
D200, f6.3, 1/640, ISO 400, 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited

I usually do very little post processing of my images, cropping, rotation or white balance adjustments then selectively masking and sharpening the subject is about all I do. But there are times when I think an image might be worth a little extra work and this young male Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) image seemed worth the effort.

I was photographing some ducks in a small pond that has marshy areas on the shoreline and was focused on the birds on the water when out of the corner of my eye I spotted this young male harrier coming in my direction. I quickly focused on where I thought the harrier might fly by but I had not zoomed back and the harrier flew closer than I anticipated, thus the clipped wingtip. The image above is full frame, straight out of the camera and resized to 720 pixels on the long side. I knew when I clicked the shutter that I should have zoomed back to 350mm but it all happened so fast.

Young male Northern Harrier with wingtip repaired

Young male Northern Harrier with wingtip repaired
Davis County, Utah
D200, f6.3, 1/640, ISO 400, 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited

I brought the image into ACR, made my adjustments and cropped the photo there then opened the file in Photoshop. I had to add canvas on the bottom and that took me longer than repairing the wingtip so that it looked very natural. The final image is a bit tighter on the top and bottom than I normally like but I loved the spread of the wings, the view of the plumage patterns and the look of concentration on the harrier’s face.

I could not post this to a critique forum without disclosing the repair work I did to the picture because of my personal ethics and also I don’t want to mislead any new photographers into believing that this image is “natural”. I also wouldn’t enter it into a contest because the rules often stipulate that only minimal processing should be done and cloning is not a minimal “processing”.

I learned from this experience though and next time a situation like this occurs I will back the zoom up a bit.

Even my photographic mistakes teach me something of value.

Mia